


waiting everyday for tomorrow

by bitsori



Category: HINAPIA (Band), PRISTIN (Band)
Genre: Canon Universe, Gen, Introspection, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25861522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitsori/pseuds/bitsori
Summary: Minkyeung drives, Gyeongwon keeps her company — Jung Eunwoo muses about  the weather.
Relationships: Kang Kyungwon | Yuha/Kim Minkyung | Roa, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: K-Pop Ficmix 2020





	waiting everyday for tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tonyang (kurusui)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurusui/gifts).
  * Inspired by [it's just a day trip](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17029698) by [tonyang (kurusui)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurusui/pseuds/tonyang). 



> wrote and finished this right before hinapia announced their disbandment, but i feel like we all saw that coming, and i think those vibes are probably present in this fic. i hope my remixee enjoys this anyway for what it is. thank you for letting me play in your sandbox! ♥
> 
> i also have a playlist for this fic, but i'll link it after reveals are up!
> 
> **ETA 200926** [here is the playlist that comes with this fic](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3pkT2foWL3IAm3bvOaBDTf?si=-7nlZfNcSGaw1U6_DSwU6Q)! it contains all the songs mentioned in this story + one bonus track (stray kids' blueprint), which is where i got the title from. once again, thank you to my remixee for the original fic — both for writing it originally as a secret santa exchange fic for me almost two years ago, and in general, for allowing me to play with the story for this exchange event now. ♥

**_LOCATION:_ ** _ The side street next to Eunwoo’s apartment. (Parking only available with a residential permit — which makes sense why Minkyeung stayed in the car as Gyeongwon went up to Eunwoo’s apartment to hurry her up.) _ _  
_ **_TIME:_ ** _ Sometime between 9 and 10 in the morning (no one’s really checking.) _ _  
_ **_TRACK:_ ** _ GAHO, “Start Over” _

“Quick!” Minkyeung yells out, head poking out of the car window as she gestures for Gyeongwon and Eunwoo to hurry. 

Eunwoo assumes that it’s probably because she’s gotten a few too many strange looks from building residents because she really shouldn’t be parked where she is. She wants to be a brat and slow her pace even more, and it seems as if Gyeongwon, laughing, has the same idea.

“You two!” Minkyeung hisses at them, clearly picking up on what they’re attempting to do. She’s clearly trying not to laugh, but it’s barely working and her yelling at them is frankly just earning her even more weird looks.

“There you go—” Gyeongwon announces as she tosses Eunwoo’s bag into the backseat before walking around the car to claim her rightful place in the passenger’s seat.

“Why do you even have luggage to begin with?” Minkyeung questions her, their eyes meeting through the rearview mirror. “It’s just a day trip!”

Eunwoo laughs and loudly pulls the door shut after her before she unzips her bag to flash the contents to the two older girls sitting up front. “I come bearing snacks,” she announces with a wide grin. “One more complaint and neither of you get to share.”

Gyeongwon laughs and turns in her seat. “Pass me something then,” she asks, holding out both palms as Minkyeung turns the engine on.

Eunwoo shoves a small box of Kancho into Gyeongwon’s hands before leaning back and settling in her seat; she’s got the whole back row to herself because Yaebin called a pass when they invited her to this trip (“I have too many things to do,” she told them; Eunwoo wanted to point out that no, she doesn't—none of them do, but Yaebin is all about self-improvement and productivity so in the end no one really questioned her), while Bada is a baby who has recently re-enrolled into cram school so even if she wanted to go, she couldn’t – Eunwoo just made a mental note to get them both some souvenirs on the way back. Maybe.

Minkyeung is maneuvering her car around the corner at the end of the street where Eunwoo lives, and Gyeongwon is already sweetly feeding her with tiny Kancho biscuits. Eunwoo has a niggling feeling she might end up some kind of third wheel on this trip, and she briefly questions why she didn’t just come up with a reason to skip out as well when Yaebin said she didn’t want to go.

Then again—she really doesn’t have anything else to do, and the entire point of this trip is to make them forget about how aimless their lives have once again become, so.

_ So. _

She sighs to herself, and then she leans forward, through the space in between the front car seats. “Can I at least be in charge of the music?”

“Nope,” Gyeongwon answers, laughing as she swipes her thumb across her phone screen. “That’s my job!”

  
  
  


**_LOCATION:_ ** _ Somewhere between 50 to 100 kilometers from home, along the expressway to Gwangju. (If you can call her apartment a “home” as opposed to just a residence; Eunwoo feels like she's called way too many places 'home' over the last few years.) _ _  
_ **_TIME:_ ** _ Maybe an hour or so into the drive. _ _  
_ **_TRACK:_ ** _ OH MY GIRL, “Dolphin” _

Eunwoo had started nodding off ten minutes into the drive. It’s too early in the day; she woke up as early as 6 in the morning, and she didn’t really fall asleep until it was around 1AM—maybe even 2AM. She was up playing with Huchu until midnight, and then after that—YouTube is a rabbit hole, is the only excuse she has.

She isn’t sure how long she had napped, but when she looks out the window, what she spies is the constantly moving scenery of a highway. OH MY GIRL’s  _ Dolphin _ is playing loudly and both Gyeongwon and Minkyeung are wiggling in their seats as they sing along.

“DA-DA-DA-DA DADDARADADDA—” Eunwoo loudly joins along as the chorus comes up, her voice still halfway sleepy. She clearly surprises the two older girls, as Minkyeung lets out a squeak and Gyeongwon practically jumps into her seat—Eunwoo automatically laughs.

This trip had been Gyeongwon’s idea. “It’ll be fun,” she said. “A trip to my hometown! Maybe we can make a detour at the beach.”

Eunwoo was pretty sure that was just her way of pulling Minkyeung out of her own thoughts. Things haven’t really been going well for any of them recently, not after plans for their comeback had been scrapped  _ indefinitely. _ She knows  _ she _ hasn’t been doing good; the entire reason why she decided to move out of the dorm to live on her own was so that she could have something to occupy her time with. There’s only so much decorating and assembling furniture she could do before her thoughts find their way back to the state of her career though—or, to be more accurate, her lack of one, so when Gyeongwon called and asked if she’d be up for a little road trip, she was quick to agree.

There wasn’t even any need to check her calendar to see if she needed to clear a day or two. 

“Did you even get sleep last night?” Gyeongwon turns to ask her after the song tapers off near the end. “Your dark circles are even more prominent today.”

“Relatable,” Minkyung answers lamely. Eunwoo notices her giving her a glance through the mirror, so she shrugs.

“It’s also because I didn’t bother hiding my eye bags with concealer this morning,” she points out. “I only have you two to be around anyway. No need to doll up,” she adds playfully. The real reason is, of course, that it was too early and she didn’t have the energy for more intricate make up, but there’s also a bit of truth to her not really feeling the need to get all prettied up when she’s spending all day with just Minkyeung and Gyeongwon.

They’ve all seen each other in worse conditions, after all.

She looks out the window, nose pressed against the glass as she watches the scenery pass by; the car has gone mostly quiet, the sounds begging Gyeongwon's soft humming along to the song that's currently playing (‘Rooftop,’ by N.Flying), and Minkyeung's newly painted red nails faintly tapping the beat against the steering wheel as she drives. 

There are a lot of cars along the road, and Eunwoo notices that even though it's still pretty early in the day, the sky is getting darker. She wonders if anyone checked the weather ahead of their trip—she knows she didn't, and she wonders if she should be more mindful of things like that now that she's an adult living on her own.

  
  
  


**_LOCATION:_** _The parking lot at a rest stop two hours into the drive. (two hours and then some, given that they just spent almost an hour eating brunch and playing games at the stop; Gyeongwon even won a mood ring at one of the gacha machines.)_ _  
_**_TIME:_** _Two hours later, and then some._ _  
_**_TRACK:_** _Red Velvet, “Carpool”_

The engine doesn’t start when Minkyeung first turns the keys in the ignition.

“What the fuck?” Minkyeung mutters under her breath. Eunwoo leans into the space between the front seats once more to check what’s going on; five minutes ago they were sharing cookies among the three of them, discussing alternative plans because while rain hasn’t started pouring, the sky isn’t any less gray.

And now it’s looking like they have another problem to deal with. Eunwoo frowns; she doesn’t understand why they’re so unlucky.

“Are we trapped here forever?” she comments, trying to lighten the atmosphere by joking around.

“Ah, don’t say that, Eunwoo!” Minkyeung groans, making another attempt to start the car; it’s clear that she’s nervous enough as it is so Eunwoo does her a favor and shuts up. 

The engine makes a low, coughing-type noise and then it goes quiet again.  _ Shit, _ Eunwoo thinks.

Gyeongwon remains calm, however. 

“Don’t nuke it,” she tells Minkyeung, and gestures for her to stop repeatedly turning the key, and then she gets out of the car before gesturing again for Minkyeung to pop the hood open.

Eunwoo exchanges a curious look with Minkyeung who just shrugs before following Gyeongwon’s silent instructions. Meanwhile, Gyeongwon straightens up and ties her hair up before leaning forward and seemingly tinkering with and poking around whatever is found under the hood. It doesn’t take long before she’s peering up from behind the cover and motioning for Minkyeung to try again.

This time, the engine surprisingly starts.

“What the—” Eunwoo laughs and pokes her head out of the window to call out to Gyeongwon. “You don’t even have a license, how did you do that?”

“I used to watch my dad fix our piece of junk,” the older girl admits. “But I don't really know anything that isn't obvious.”

She pushes the hood back down, and walks around the car to claim her seat next to Minkyeung when she suddenly stops. “I think we’ve got another problem though,” Gyeongwon announces; her expression looks quite resigned as she points at the front right tire. “This looks like it’s going flat.”

And of course, none of them know how to change a tire, never mind inflate and patch one.

“We’d have to call for help,” Gyeongwon advises; Minkyeung, meanwhile, seems frozen.

“We can never catch a break, huh?” She groans, pulling the key out of the ignition and falling back against her seat.

Gyeongwon literally takes matters into her own hands as she opens the glove compartment to look for insurance information. “Nunu,” she says, “call roadside assistance.”

Eunwoo is reminded that she’s meant to tell them for a while now that she has been thinking of getting rid of that nickname because it feels a little too childish now—but obviously this isn’t the right time to bring that up. She gets out of the car and looks for the right number on her phone.

“I guess we’ll never forget this trip, right?” Gyeongwon offers, grinning after Eunwoo makes the appropriate phone call and they finish barking instructions at the customer service person on the other line. In turn, they’re told to wait half an hour before they can be serviced. “There’s the positive part of it.”

Minkyeung groans, but she ties her hair up as well, and follows both of them out of the car. “You can see a bright side right now?”

“We’re making memories, Minky. What’s the point in going on a trip if no one remembers it?” Gyeongwon laughs. Eunwoo notices the sad tinge on her expression though, and it hits hard because Gyeongwon easily has the brightest smile among them on most days.

_ Life sucks, _ Eunwoo thinks. This trip feels like it’s mirroring the state of their lives in general. They started out hopefully, looking forward to a day without worries—but it’s like one small hurdle after another, and even when they try to fix things on their own, at the end of the day they’re still left with a questionable status. 

“At least we’re at a rest stop,” she points out, forcing a smile on her face, squeezing in between the two taller girls and wrapping her arms around their shoulders.. “We don’t have to be bored,” she adds. “Come on, whoever scores lowest on the punching game buys everyone ice cream!”

  
  
  


**_LOCATION:_** _An empty lot down the street from Gyeongwon’s family home in Gwangju. (It’s pouring cats and dogs outside; they only have one umbrella between the three of them and no one wants to get out of the car.)_ _  
_**_TIME:_** _Maybe around two in the afternoon; maybe a little bit before._ _  
_**_TRACK:_** _YOUNHA, “Dark Cloud”_

They had to wait another half hour at the rest stop before they could get back on the road, and by then, Eunwoo is back to feeling fatigued. It’s unsurprising how, once again, she finds herself nodding off to sleep.

When she wakes up, it’s to the white noise of rain pouring and loudly hitting the car’s roof. It takes her a second to realise that the car isn’t even moving anymore.

Also yet again, Minkyeung and Gyeongwon don’t seem to notice that she’s stirred into wakefulness. The two of them are leaning towards each other, foreheads practically touching as they converse in hushed tones. Eunwoo’s face warms up—a part of her had been dreading this. The other two have always been really close; it’s hard not to when they went through so many life events attached at the hip, from entering Pledis only a few shy months away from each other, to going through high school together and even entering the same university. Heck, they even got eliminated on a damn survival show at the same time, and Eunwoo is well aware that Gyeongwon was the first person Minkyeung called after she decided to stop feeling sorry for herself and she decided that it was time to buckle up and try to get back into the idol game. (The success of her actions are seemingly short-lived, but at least  _ some _ success was achieved.)

Even when there were more of them—even when they were still PRISTIN, and even before that when they were still just collectively Pledis Girlz—Gyeongwon was the only person Minkyeung has ever allowed herself to lean on. Sometimes this makes Eunwoo wonder how she can help—what she can offer so that Minkyeung would know that she's perfectly dependable as well, but most days she's aware that all she can really do is not give Minkyeung anymore cause or reason to be stressed. 

She’s glad that Minkyeung at least has Gyeongwon—that the two of them have each other, in any way or capacity that they do. (They all lived together for many years after all, and there have always been brief moments when a closed door is more than just a closed door—when the two of them get their time alone together, and everyone chooses not to question why, or what they do together.) 

She isn’t glad to be in the middle of it though—she hates being made to feel like she’s on the outside looking in, and because she knows neither of them mean to make her feel like that, Eunwoo doesn’t hesitate to loudly clear her throat.

Both Minkyeung and Gyeongwon snap out of whatever figurative bubble they’ve trapped themselves in, and they simultaneously turn to face Eunwoo, a pair of matching sheepish expressions on their faces.

“We’re hoping the rain lets out soon so we can just sprint to the house,” Minkyeung explains.

“If it doesn’t, I’ll message my mom to bring us extra umbrellas,” Gyeongwon offers. “But hopefully it doesn’t come to that.”

_ Right, _ Eunwoo thinks as she nods in understanding. Because when possible, they always face storms on their own.

  
  
  


**_LOCATION:_ ** _ The beach. Some kilometers away from Gyeongwon’s house.  _ _  
_ **_TIME:_ ** _ A little bit before the sunset, whenever that is. _ _  
_ **_TRACK:_ ** _ TWICE, “Rainbow” _

Eunwoo digs her feet into the sand, a wide grin curving across her lips as she enjoys the feeling of the sand—wet and coarse, yet strangely relaxing as they rub against the in betweens of her toes.

They had just spent hours at Gyeongwon’s family’s house, mostly playing with her dog and chatting with her twin as they let time slowly pass. Holing up at Gyeongwon’s childhood bedroom wasn’t exactly the plan they had in mind when they set off that morning, but there isn’t really much they can do with the weather refusing to cooperate.

“We should just go home,” Minkyeung eventually suggested, as they shared snacks from Eunwoo’s bag. (“And here you were, judging me for my big bag,” Eunwoo teased even as she shared her food with them, tongue sticking out childishly.)

“Absolutely not,” Eunwoo argued; hanging out with Gyeongwon’s dog was fun and all, but she wanted a sort of win from this trip. They all needed it.

“Let’s try the beach,” Gyeongwon suggested. “Just a quick detour.” She walked towards the window to peer outside. “The weather is clearing up a little anyway.”

“I don’t like driving at night,” Minkyeung said, pouting, but she sounded unsure, and fortunately it didn’t really take too much cajoling to get her to agree.

They stop at a convenience store en route to the beach so they could refill Eunwoo’s snack bag; they bought more snacks and some cold drinks – some flavored beer for Gyeongwon and Eunwoo, while Minkyeung was stuck with carbonated grape soda because she still had to get behind the wheel for at least two more hours. (“Unfair,” she had grumbled, but with the weather placated, the small smile on her lips was also more prominent.)

And now here they are, the three of them closely standing together as they stared across the sea. The water is oddly calm considering the weather just an hour or so ago, while the sun is slowly making its way down the horizon. The sky is a beautiful mix of deep orange and indigo hues, and Eunwoo can’t help but squeeze Gyeongwon’s arm as she inhales deeply – it's a beautiful scene, and it takes her breath away.

“This is actually nice,” Minkyeung murmurs, the soft pop of her soda can echoing around them when she opens her drink.

“We should take a picture,” Eunwoo suggests.

“We should,” Gyeongwon agrees, but none of them really move, and they all watch the sun go down, until there are no more oranges, and the sky is just a dark purple, with the last rays of the sun replaced by faint sparkling of stars.

“This…” Eunwoo starts, only to interrupt herself with a bittersweet chuckle. “This is our life,” she says; and even she doesn’t know if she means it in a good or bad way – the day hasn’t been anywhere near as fun or as calming as they had meant it to be, but here they are now, feeling good as they take in a beautiful scene.

“Yeah,” Minkyeung agrees, only to start laughing; she’s joined by Gyeongwon and soon enough, Eunwoo as well because she gets it. They  _ all _ get it — the humor in the irony of their lives.

“Cheers to us!” Gyeongwon says, lifting her own drink amidst laughter. “And cheers to dealing with life and every little thunderstorm it throws our way.”

  
  
  
  
  


++

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for making it to the end. also: i hope the pristin/hinapia girlies only have good things waiting for them ♥;;;;;


End file.
